


Home is Synonymous of Happiness for Steven Rogers

by starryprose



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, the avengers as a family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 18:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21433069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryprose/pseuds/starryprose
Summary: Ignoring the events of endgame, a twist on what could’ve happened when The Avengers were victorious over Thanos.Home and Happiness have always been synonyms for Steve.
Relationships: Natasha Romanoff / Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & James Rhodes
Kudos: 62





	Home is Synonymous of Happiness for Steven Rogers

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a smaller version of this months ago. It was short and sweet and messy and I decided to pull it apart more and make it a little longer. I hope you enjoy.

There is a sort of intense energy to the air. It’s not the same as a battle, Steve can’t explain it. He’s never felt this before but he can imagine this is how it felt when the war was won all those years ago. 

Steve Rogers has won battles but he has always been deprived of seeing the ending of a war. Until now, and maybe that, the wait, makes it more worth it, Because they defeated Thanos days ago but the weight, the relief, it carries. 

Steve knows, that despite the defeat of their harshest foe yet, there will be more, but for now, it feels a bit like an ending. Steve isn’t sure if he likes that. So, he ignores that feeling and he surveys his, well, his family. The Avengers, God, they’d  _ always  _ been a family. The sentiment he’d wanted to say to Zemo echoes in his skull,

_ The Avengers have never been an empire, we’ve always been a family. _

And Steve still regrets how his tongue didn’t form those words, how instead they didn’t form any words at all. No apologies or explanations. He regrets how his hands formed fists and he regrets, he regrets, he regrets.

But he is shaken from his memories by the squeal of delight that issues from Nathanael Barton as Peter Parker shoots small webs towards his feet. Nathanael is speedy and Peter is giving him head starts, mostly just miming webs and noises but sometimes he’ll throw in a real web behind the little boys foot. 

Cassie Lang is standing with the older Barton siblings and Wanda. Steve is glad to see that at least Wanda looks somewhat at ease, it provides peace to his weariness. The Avengers are scattered across the yard of the compound. They’re at ease in a way that is rare.

Natasha is sitting with Bucky, looking as stunning as ever in a black dress, her red curls with their platinum ends pulled up into a twist, her lips stained wine colored. Her hand is resting on Bucky’s metal one and Steve remembers the way she had whispered Bucky’s name.

_ “Bucky, James, just recognize me,” _

Steve never tried to understand the russian phrases that followed the plea, the plea that would’ve been desperate had it been from anyone but Natasha Romanov. 

If it hadn’t been for so many things that made Steve, Steve, he would’ve startled at the arrival of Sam beside him. 

“Captain,” Sam greeted and he grinned behind the rim of his cup. “On your left.”

“It was more funny the first time, Sam.” Steve replied but he smiled easily. “How are you?”

“Good.” Sam said with a shrug as he pulled the cup away from his mouth. “I mean definitely could be worse. And what about you, Steve? Are you, happy?”

The question isn’t one Steve is a stranger to being asked. He’d heard it from Bucky when he became Captain America. He’d heard it from Peggy when he’d awoken. He’d heard it from Wanda before she’d left with Vision, the way she’d looked at him and asked “are you happy, Captain?” as if it was as simple as that. And he remembers the run, he remembers the crappy hotel rooms and the hard ground and he remembers the guilt he felt towards Peggy. At the way Peggy had clasped his hand and told him he had to find his ways to be happy, for her and for himself. He remembers seeing Sam at the VA,

_ “What makes you happy?” _

_ “I don’t know.” _

Steve is mulling over the question and he’s staring at the dance floor where Tony has roped Carol Danvers and Rhodey into dancing with him. Tony’s cuts are healing and Steve forces the image of Tony’s cuts after Siberia from his brain. Instead, he focuses on how he placed the bandages on those current cuts, how his lips had brushed softly over the one on Tony’s temple. And he forces down a laugh as Carol twirls Tony and Tony falls into Rhodey’s chest, throwing a hand to his head dramatically as if Carol had made him faint with her dancing skills. 

“I-” Steve starts and he’s not quite sure what he wants to say. Because he’s home and that’s, that’s what he wants to say. But he isn’t sure if Sam will understand the way happiness and home are synonymous to Steve. But it’s the truth, Steve is home,

_ “Mr. Stark, when I woke up in this era, I had no one. Nothing. You gave me a purpose, somewhere to belong… You gave me a home.” _

_ “You alright, Cap?” _

_ “I’m home.” _

“Yeah, I, I think I am.” Steve says and he is shocked that it is honest, there is no sugar coating. Because he’s watching Tony Stark and Tony catches his eye, his irises warm and melting and his lips a soft pink, and Steve can kiss those lips, and he can see the skin under that suit. And Tony winks at him in a perfectly Tony way before he’s trying to make Rhodes waltz with him and God, Steve loves him, and he is Steve’s home and Steve is happy. And it hurts because he is so happy.

And he recalls what Wanda had made him imagine all those years ago when she’d worked for Ultron.

_ “Steve, the wars over. We can go home.” _

And Peggy had been right, but not then, and not the correct form of we. The war with Thanos, it was over now and he could go home, he had gone home. And Steve had a home, he hadn’t in the forties, besides Bucky and the hope for Peggy. But now he had Clint’s farm and he had Scott’s beat up van, and he had Thor’s mismatched eyes, and he had Bruce’s tea, and Natasha’s knives, and Wanda’s cold hands, and Sam’s deep laughs, and Bucky’s arm over his shoulder, and he had  _ Tony _ , Tony with everything about him that Steve could not resist. 

So, Steve was happy, but most of all he was home. and he kept that sentiment as he crawled into bed next to Tony Stark that night. And when he awoke next to Tony the next morning. And when he jogged slowly with Sam. And when he drank coffee with Clint. And when he sparred with Natasha. While he watched morning cartoons with Thor and read the paper with Bucky. While he played catch with DUM-E and watched Tony work.

  
  


Home and happiness has always been synonymous for Steven Rogers.


End file.
